Cade Horton laments injury-induced absence from Cubs’ opening-round playoff series: ‘It sucks’

Cade Horton has been a massive part of the Cubs’ success this season.

Without the rookie right-hander’s work filling in for injured starters early in the campaign and the best-in-baseball numbers he put up after the All-Star break, the Cubs might not be preparing to play hosts in their opening-round playoff series against the Padres.

They might not be in the postseason at all.

But at the moment, that’s of little comfort to Horton, who will miss the wild-card round — and most, or perhaps all, of a potential NLDS — after the Cubs put him on the injured list with a rib fracture Saturday.

“I take a lot of pride in that,” Horton said Sunday of his contributions this season. “But just this spot of the year, I really wanted to impact the team right now.

“I wanted to see it through and see if I could do it. That’s why I was throwing the last two days, to see. I want to be out there. This whole thing is just unfortunate. We’ve done everything up to this point to keep me healthy, and for it to happen this way just sucks.”

Much like team brass, Horton is uncertain precisely how his fractured rib came about. He described a sickness that had him coughing, left him fatigued and impacted his breathing. Eventually, that turned into discomfort while pitching, ending his most recent start after just three innings.

“It was just the perfect storm, unfortunately,” Horton said. “There wasn’t one pitch, there wasn’t one cough. It was the combination of fatigue, cough, then I go out and try to throw 98. I don’t think there was any protecting it.

“We thought about maybe giving it an extra day [before the final regular-season start], but what would that have actually done? Probably nothing. At the end of the day, I didn’t want to go into the playoff start not throwing for two weeks.

“I don’t think rest really would have done much. I was over my sickness. It was just an unfortunate situation.”

The Cubs have to figure out a way to go on a deep October run without the guy who posted a 1.03 ERA in a dozen second-half starts, further affecting a pitching picture that’s gotten blurrier in the last couple weeks of the regular season.

Horton, meanwhile, has to sit and watch.

He’s focused on being a supportive teammate and a loud cheerleader as his fellow hurlers take to the mound and try to shut down the Padres.

While questions abound about top-of-the-rotation lefties Shota Imanaga and Matthew Boyd, who have struggled over the season’s final weeks, Horton believes in his rotation-mates, the guys who have helped him so much during his first taste of the majors.

“We’ve got a really good rotation. These guys can do it,” Horton said. “They’ve helped me so much, in terms of going out there every fifth day. Working with them every day has been so special. That’s one thing about this rotation is we pick each other up when it’s needed. I’ve got really good belief in them.”

It’s a bummer of a way to potentially end what might be a Rookie of the Year season for Horton and throws into question how far the Cubs can advance, if they can reach a deeper October round where Horton might be able to pitch.

“I know it hurt him a lot to have to go to the IL and not be a part of the first round,” righty starter Jameson Taillon said Saturday. “That says a lot about him. He wants to be a part of the team and wants to help.

“He picked us up a lot this year, when I was down for a while, when Shota was down for a while. So now it’s our turn to try to pick him up and make sure he can, hopefully, play a part as we get going into the playoffs.”